The Parts Professor on Brushes vs. Pads

What’s better, brushes or pads?

Tim Stepanovich, aka The Parts Professor!

In my opinion, brushes outperform, are more economical and more sanitary than floor pads in most cleaning applications. Let’s take a deeper dive into why I make this bold statement.

Brushes outperform pads on floors with height variations and grout lines.

When using a floor pad, they glide along the highest surface causing the grout lines and depressions to remain dirty, over time you will be able to see that these areas are soiled when the rest of the floor is clean. A floor brush is designed to be able to handle high and low surfaces at the same time, the bristles will reach down into those low lying areas and lift up the dirt for removal, instead of pushing it in and leaving it behind.

Pads behave much like a kitchen sponge in that they hold the dirt and germs, whereas a brush lifts the dirt from the surface suspending it into the water which is then captured by the squeegee and deposited into the recovery tank instead of being pushed into the grout lines or low surfaces of a textured floor. This is much more sanitary as the dirt is removed from the floor surface and brush bristles instead of being picked up by the pad to just spread to the next surface.

Asset Protection

Another advantage of brushes is that they last 6-12 months in most conditions. Floor pads typically last 2-3 cleanings before needing to be replaced. If they aren’t replaced frequently enough they will wear out, causing the bristles of the pad driver to reach the surface of the floor. This often causes the floor to be scratched and will wear out the pad driver resulting in the need to replace both the pad and the driver (hello damaged assets). Because of the frequency of pad changes you will want to keep several on hand, taking up precious storage space (wasted assets). The longevity of the brush will free up this storage space for other needs.

Time (i.e. Labor) Savings

A brush is initially a higher cost than floor pad, but the advantages often work out to it being comparable if not lower priced in the long run. Your true savings is on the cost of labor (a truly precious asset today). If you only need one to two brush changes a year instead of the much more frequent flipping, placing and replacement of pads… your team spends more time cleaning and less fiddling with equipment. You are also saving your floors from possible damages resulting from using a worn out pad. If you have to replace a pad driver or two, any savings you had will be dissolved.

If you need help picking out the right solution, shoot me an email or give me a call, I’m always happy to help!